It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

Our Spring Scholastic Book Fair opens for shopping on February 8th!  

Flyers will be sent home this week.

Online book fair shopping begins THIS Thursday, February 1st!

Your on-site and online purchases support author visits, book purchases for the library and our students, and events such as our upcoming Bluebonnet Breakfast.

In other news...we had an author visit on Monday!

Dianna Hutts Aston shared her inquisitive love of nature with our students.  Her collection of nature specimens was amazing--beetles and nests, shells and skeletons, even a puffer fish!  We are glad to have many of Ms. Aston's books in our library collection.

Bluebonnet voting concluded today.  Seventy-nine of our third, fourth, and fifth graders chose their favorite Bluebonnet nominee, and the winner is....

If you would like to get a head start on next year's Bluebonnet reading, visit our Scholastic Book Fair next week!  Ms Margocs will be wagging a "tale" or two!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I randomly picked two choices from my large stack of read-and-review books--and found two great ones to share!

Who Am I? An Animal Guessing Game by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page would be a wonderful pairing with the Texas 2x2 book I read in the Book Nook, Ocean Animals from Head to Tail, since they both focus on animal details.  Who Am I? describes several body parts that make each animal unique, and then reveals the creature on the following two-page spread. Most elementary school-aged students will be able to guess the animals right away, and will enjoy the additional facts about each in the back of the book.  I especially liked the size comparisons given and the simple bibliography to lead children to more learning.

It's not often I pick up a chapter book and finish it in a couple of days during the school year, but that's what happened with Kiran Millwood Hargrave's The Cartographer's Daughter.

Isabella loves to hear her father's stories of island life before the arrival of the cruel, domineering Governor.  She has a special friendship with the Governor's daughter, Lupe, who is kind and seems unaware of her father's reputation.  Together they play and go to school in the town of Gromera, never venturing past the orchards and into the Forgotten Territory per the Governor's orders.  A catastrophic event leads to chaos and rebellion in Gromera, and a trek into the Forgotten Territory to find the perpetrators.  Isabella must use all the skills her cartographer father taught her to save their lives--and possibly the future of the island itself.  The Cartographer's Daughter is a great middle grade adventure in a made-up world with understandable characters and hints at the truths to be found in myth.

It's Monday--have you read a book lately that you couldn't put down?

It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

All science fair experiment books are now due!  Please return them this week, or students will not be allowed to check out more books next week.

Tech and text in the library this week, as we have readers and survey-takers and learners!
Read-alouds in the Book Nook:

Kindergarten

First Grade

Our newest Book Nook visitor:

Found in Ms Margocs' study at home....

Second graders are in the learning area this week to get some tips for using our online catalog more efficiently!  They can see if a book is available, find the call number, and even narrow their searches by format, genre, and reading level.

Third and fourth graders are taking the district climate survey on iPads and laptops.  Fifth grade will be missing their library times due to STAAR Ready testing, so they have been coming to the library in small groups to check out books to read when they are done.

Third through fifth graders who turned in their Bluebonnet signature pages will be voting for their favorite Bluebonnet books this week and next!

Upcoming deadlines/ events:

January 29th:  Dianna Hutts Aston author visit for 1st and 2nd grades

February 8th-13th:  Spring Scholastic Book Fair!  Check the library website for details and volunteer signups!

February 9th:  Six Flags reading logs due

February 16th:  Schlitterbahn reading logs due

February 15th:  Campus Battle of the Bluebonnets (by invitation only)

February 28th:  Bluebonnet Breakfast (by invitation only)

March 6th:  District Battle of the Bluebonnets  (by invitation only)

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I was first introduced to Oliver Jeffers' storytelling and illustration style when I read Stuck to the students in my resource classroom.  We all felt smarter than the main character after reading that funny tale!

In 2013, I got my first (and current) librarian job.  Jeffers had  illustrated The Day the Crayons Quit for author Drew Daywalt, and it was on our Bluebonnet Award Nominee List in 2014--and won!

Jeffers has written and illustrated several books, and I can't seem to stop adding them to my own personal collection.  His latest, Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth, seems to me the most poignant yet.  

Written for his newborn son, Here We Are is a tender introduction to this planet we call home.  Jeffers starts with the solar system and zooms inward, highlighting the most important details. From landforms to creatures of the sea, body parts and basic needs to the familiar newborn parents' plea for sleep, Jeffers underlines the similarities we share, despite the differences he illustrates so beautifully and inclusively.  There are admonitions on how we use our time and resources, and a reminder that there is always someone to ask for guidance, even after Jeffers himself is gone.  There may be a tear in your eye as you close this wonderful book.

P.S.  Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth may just be my new favorite baby shower gift....It belongs on the nursery shelf, right next to On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier, Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.

It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

Learning and extra-long weekends and looming deadlines, that's what's happening!

Last Friday, Ms Margocs headed to UT Austin for the Greater Austin Area Information Literacy Symposium (GAAILS).  She took LOTS of notes and looks forward to sharing what she learned with the Sommer learning community.  Thanks to Mrs. Woodul and Mrs. Haga for running the library that day!

Jester Hall, across from the Perry-Castaneda Library.
Ms Margocs lived in the first and studied in the second!

Our extra day off due to the ice storm means we missed some classes in the library on Tuesday.  We will do our best to reschedule lessons and read-alouds; students may come for individual visits to return and check out books, teacher and time permitting.

Ms Margocs' backyard version of "black ice"

Important library dates to note:

January 16th--Book orders for Aston author visit due to the library! Since we were out yesterday, please turn in orders by tomorrow, January 18th.  Remember, prices already include taxes; checks may be made out to Sommer Elementary.

January 19th--THIS FRIDAY!!--Bluebonnet Signature Pages are DUE!!  Voting starts next week!

January 29th--Dianna Hutts Aston visits first and second grades!

February 7th-13th--Library is closed for checkouts because SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR!!!

February 9th--Six Flags reading logs are due!

February 19th-- Schlitterbahn reading logs are due!

We had a really great December in the library--here are the stats to prove it!

See you soon in the library!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

I'm beginning my New Year by reading new-to-me books!

I confess--this book has been sitting on my review pile for THREE years! The Infinity Ring series is from the publishers of The 39 Clues series--very popular in our school library--so I thought it was time to dust this one off and read it.  If you haven't read either series, a detail of note is that each book is written by a different, well-acclaimed author who continues the storyline--which is why the books are housed in a special section on our shelves, so that they don't end up scattered throughout the fiction section.

The two series are different genres with similar details.  The 39 Clues stories are the adventures of siblings Amy and Dan Cahill as they try to solve the mystery of their family secret.  The Infinity Ring series is a scifi adventure; Dak and Sera and Riq travel through time to heal breaks in history.  Both series include factual historical events.

Eternity is Book Eight of the Infinity Ring.  The author--Matt de la Peña--is known in our library for the Newbery Award-winning Last Stop on Market Street, and the recently published Love.  I haven't read the first seven books, so I was lost for a moment--but quickly caught up.  Dak and Sera have been on their own since Riq decided to stay with Alexander the Great and patch things up in that timeline.  But when Sera's parents disappear, and Dak spies a pterosaur hanging out in a tree, they realize that something is amiss in history, and start bouncing around time trying to figure out what is going on.  Is the evil SQ behind the recent breaks?  Travels to  ancient China, Greece, and the 1960s space program sites may hold the answers.

The Infinity Ring series will appeal to readers of The 39 Clues, as well as fans of historical fiction.  I think my readers of The Magic Tree House books can grow into The Infinity Ring; best to start at Book One!

******************

It's January, and I'm still working on setting goals for 2018 and figuring out how to implement them.  I'm hoping The Miracle Morning:  The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life Before 8AM, by Hal Elrod, may be a good start.  The book had such great reviews that I also purchased the college student edition for my son!  The book is short--only 180 pages--so I'm hoping to finish it today and have my first "Miracle Morning" tomorrow!

It's Monday!  What books are you reading to start off the New Year?

It's Wednesday! What's happening in the Sommer Library?

Welcome back to our Spring Semester!  

Hope you had a great Winter Break with lots of time to read!

This week in the library, we've got three different books going on in the Book Nook. Second grade is listening to It Came in the Mail in preparation for their letter-writing unit.

First grade is discussing the differences between fiction and nonfiction as we compare our last reading, You Don't Want a Unicorn by Ame Dyckman, with Gail Gibbon's Horses. 
        

And kindergarten students are finally getting to hear about William Hoy, a deaf baseball player who may likely be the reason for umpire's hand signals.

World Braille Day is celebrated each January, so we are taking the opportunity to talk about disability awareness in the Book Nook.  We have a related display of books to share:

Third and fourth graders are reviewing library skills with self-paced Nearpod lessons on the iPads.  Fifth graders are reviewing nonfiction text features, then hunting for examples in library books on the sun, moon, and solar system (their latest science unit).

We have a new book display on Social Justice, which will be up for the remainder of the school year.  The book list was compiled by state Teachers of the Year; our very own Mrs. Balakrishnan submitted the list for grades 4-6! 

Don't forget the deadlines for reading programs; they are coming up FAST!

Bluebonnet Signature Page due Friday, January 19th

Six Flags Reading Logs due Friday, February 9th

Schlitterbahn Reading Logs due Monday, February 19th

Our Spring Scholastic Book Fair will be here in less than a month!  Whoohoo!  Volunteer sign-up links will be going out soon on our school and library websites.

Ms. Margocs is looking forward to seeing you in the library!